Hotel business law | Guests’ data may be provided to gov’t

In the future, hotels may be required by law to provide civil protection data to the government when the city enters certain civil protection states.
The latest version of the bill of the Hotel Venues Business Law submitted by the government to the parliament has proposed the aforementioned requirement. Wednesday the parliament’s Second Standing Committee, presided over by local catering mogul and lawmaker Chan Chak Mou, revealed that if the legislation is enacted, hotels will need to meet the requirement when the city faces “sudden public events”, as stipulated in the Civil Protection Law, and when the government so requests.
Chan added that it was implementing the request by the parliamentary committee that the Administration change the wording from “request” to “require,” meaning that the provision would become a legal duty.
The requirement can apply in a wide variety of situations, according to Chan. He said that a fire drill is an example in which hotels are required to provide more data than just the number of hotel guests registered. Failure to comply with the requirement will incur a fine between MOP10,000 and MOP20,000.
Furthermore, if the legislation passes the parliament, guest data will have to be retained for five years so that the authorities can review the data when necessary.
Chan added that he hopes the bill can be brought to the parliamentary plenary for debate and voting by the end of next month. AL